He was forced to explain that it was actually Fanny’s piece, not his. That led to an uncomfortable situation for Felix when he visited Queen Victoria of England, who offered to sing his song Italien for him. Her family did not approve of her compositions being published, although Felix did publish some of her works in his own name. Her second and final performance was at a concert for charity in 1838.Īs an adult, Fanny hosted Sunday afternoon musical gatherings, or Sonntagsmusiken, in her home every week. This was an astonishing feat in her day, since music was rarely performed from memory. The first time was at age twelve when she performed all twenty-four of the preludes from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, which she had memorized. Her father Abraham once wrote to her that, “ for you it can and must be only an ornament, never the basis of your being or doing.” She once said “ it must be a sign of talent that I do not give up, though I can get nobody to take an interest in my efforts“.įanny was a magnificent pianist, but she performed in public only twice in her lifetime. However, her family did not want her to concentrate on music or composition as a career. She was something of a child prodigy one of her teachers said that she was a female Johann Sebastian Bach. She received an excellent education and had the same music instructors as her brother. The Mendelssohn family was of Jewish origin but converted to Christianity when Fanny was a small child. Other Interesting Facts About Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel She pushed the limits of what a Victorian women were believed to be capable of doing. She was one of the first pianists to perform from memory, and she wrote large works like piano trios and sonatas that many people in her day thought were beyond the skills of a female composer. It’s entirely possible that this idea was partially inspired by Fanny, who loved and admired Bach’s music.įanny was remarkable for her time. Bach to the public after he had beenįorgotten for over a hundred years. It was, in fact, Felix Mendelssohn who reintroduced the work of J.S. We’ll probably never know just to what extent she influenced Felix and his works, but he wouldn’t have been the same man or the same composer without her. We know that Fanny advised her brother on the composition of his famous St. They often gave advice on the other’s compositions. Why It Mattersįanny and Felix had an enormous influence on each other. She and her brother Felix (another famous composer) spent several months studying in Paris as children, and she spent a year traveling through Italy with her husband Wilhelm Hensel. Whereįanny was born in Hamburg, Germany and later moved to Berlin, where she spent most of her life. She was a contemporary of Robert and Clara Wieck Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Johannes Brahms. Whenįanny lived during the expressive Romantic period. One of her works, the Cholera Cantata, was written after her family survived an epidemic of the disease. She was known for her ability to write for stringed instruments and compose counterpoint (the combination of several independent melodies). In this series, we’re discovering the stories of the best composers in Western music history and why their work matters to us today.Ī brilliant pianist and composer of over four hundred keyboard works and lieder (parlor songs), a piano trio, a piano quartet, and several cantatas. Only very recently have scholars begun to take her own compositions seriously, and as it turns out, she was something of a prodigy herself. That’s how Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was known for a century and a half.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |